I had a decent day yesterday. I did accomplish a lot, both physically and also I got a lot of thoughts in order regarding the ongoing issues that I am dealing with. Again, both Keith and I truly appreciate the support over the last couple of days, and many of you have asked how you could help. The more I hear from people, the deeper I see the problem is seated and I realize that it has been going on much longer than I care to admit. That is very troubling, but it is also water under the bridge and I realize that the only thing that I can do is move forward from here.

For those that want to help, I only ask that you get the word out that this is happening. If you know of someone that has purchased patterns with my name on them that is of poor quality, please forward my contact information to them so that I can rectify it. Since I have brought this to light, I have heard from several customers and I am more than happy to help them out. I am ashamed of the quality of patterns that they have received with my name on it, and I want to fix it. One customer told me they called the company and were told “we don’t design them, we only sell them”. Nice.

But let’s move on from there today. We are working to rectify things as soon as possible and in the mean time, I have been working on new things in which I wish to focus.

I finished up the third version of the Ghosts and “Boo” letters. I even got the packet written. This final version is geared for the painters, as only the silhouettes of the pieces need to be cut on the scroll saw. I am considering making kits for this project also, but I need to find out how much shipping the pieces would cost and I don’t know if the customer would tolerate the charges. I am going to take the pieces down to the post office later on today and see what we can come up with as far as that goes.

The pieces need to be at least 1/2” thick, which would push them from a letter size into a small packet category. This is true even if they were put into a standard padded envelope. I wish we had flat rate envelopes as they do in the states, but here in Canada, I think the cheapest flat rate envelope is a smaller, half-page size for about $18. That certainly won’t do. The small packet size will probably cost around $13 to ship, and would only accommodate one set of pieces. I was thinking that the price of the pieces needs to be about $15 in itself, making the total price for the kit approximately $30 with shipping. I just think that is too high.

The other option that I have is to cut the pieces from 1/8” or 1/4” stock and making some kind of reliable stand system for them. The stands would need to be disassembled so that they would lay flat in a padded envelope and the envelope would be able to qualify within the guidelines of a regular document. Again, when I visit the post office today, I will get these exact dimensions so I can see if it will be possible to mail things like that.

I hate to have to design around shipping like this, but I think the cost is so high that it has to be a consideration. I want to have these kits available because many, many painters don’t have access to any woodworkers and I think especially with projects such as these, the fact that they are dimensional figures are part of their charm. I will see what I can work out so that I can get it to the customers as cheaply as possible.

Here is a picture of the finished set:

I think it came out cool. The pieces are all ‘crackled’ and I did add a layer of the iridescent ultra fine glitter paint on them to give them a subtle shimmer. There is minimal shading involved and it is a great beginner project. I am happy with it.

I am going to spend the day today writing pattern packets. We have hopes of doing a new site update soon and I have lots of new things for the site that need final packets. I have more ideas, but I have some other things to do to and I am working on some new avenues and audiences for our designs and I want to spend some time there too.

I just never run out of things to do!

It is the end of the week for most of you. Autumn is certainly in the air here and I hope you all have some nice plans for the weekend. It is a good time to take advantage of the nice weather while you can and it is an even better time to start thinking about all those projects you are going to be making this fall for the upcoming holiday season.

9 comments so far

Good morning Sheila,
We just love these new word pieces! We have had real good luck at the shows with just plain word scroll art but with the extras that you add, we are sure we won’t be able to keep them in stock! Have a real good weekend.Rick

I went to your website Sheila and there was nothing I could find about “Who is Sheila???”

From reading a bunch of your blogs on LJ most people on this site know a bit about you. You need to get a tab or something on the main page to detail a bit of your biography; years doing this, contributing editor… Heck, you don’t even have the LJ picture of you on the site.

My point is that someone just coming across your site has no idea if they are buying from the actual real Sheila or some group of people who thought the name was cool. A personal connection with the customers might help, you have a great persona on LJ and should try to work that in a bit more on the website.

I have already been doing that and trying to get the word out to people who may have these patterns. I have been replacing them with the full copies and telling others to get the word out so I can rectify it. The problem is that many of the customers are not on the computer, and they will never know that what they received isn’t what I had created. :(

Hi, Steve:I just wanted to mention that I do have an “about me” section on the site. It is on the “News and Happenings” page and there is a section on the bottom that gives a little history about me (AND I have my picture there too!). I probably need to up date it though. The link to that page is here:

However, since you didn’t see it right off, we are thinking we should have more prominent links to it on either the side bar or the top of the page. It isn’t always easy putting links such as that. Our site is on a template and sometimes it doesn’t cooperate in the way that we want it to. We try to keep the pages as uncluttered as possible, while still showcasing our 400+ products. That can be a challenge.

Thank you very much for pointing this out to me. We are planning an update in the next couple of days, as I mentioned above, and we will certainly address this issue.